Hi, I'm Lissa, one of your Topeka Municipal Liaisons. I am more-than-a-little nanowrimo obsessed, particularly in October and November each year. I've won nanowrimo 6 times, and the first year was the hardest because I didn't know anyone else who was trying this frantic writing adventure. I think that attending a few events and connecting with a few writing buddies in the forums is an important element to most people's success. (Plus, if you don't attend at least one in-person event, you won't be able to get your official stickers from Nanowrimo headquarters!)
My role as municipal liaison is to offer support and encouragement to you, answer your questions, help you get unstuck, share all of the plot ninjas, tips and tricks, challenges, bribes, etc. that I can come up with to help you keep writing throughout November and be here for you all month long until you cross the 50,000 word goal line.
On a more personal note, this November I will be fitting Nanowrimo into working at the library (which is why so many of our events are scheduled there!) and my family life, which now includes my spouse and our 14 month old little girl. Last year, I was still on maternity leave half of the month and writing with a 2 month old who slept a lot was a fairly manageable. I'm not sure how this year will go, but if it possible to get even less sleep and still survive until December 1, I'm going to pull it off. I usually try to write something a little different every year, and then I end up writing some sort of romance. I don't have an idea for this year yet, but since about half of the previous years I have started over from scratch on day 2 or 3 and still won, I'm not worried. Yet.
Introduce yourself please, sharing whatever would like your writing community to know about you!
What do you think your challenges will be will be this November?
If you are returning to Nano, how have your past Novembers gone?
If you are new, what are you excited about?
----------
Perhaps my entire novel can be written during hours and minutes that my toddler is sleeping. Perhaps not.
50,363 / 50,000
Oct 4, 2009 - 00 24
I'm Deb, your other ML. I've been doing NaNo for. . . 3 years. It's hard to remember sometimes because I signed up on the website several years before that and watched everyone else have a blast. My first year, I wrote a little more that 25k, which was fairly impressive, but I don't like to fall short. So the next year, with a 3 month old, I tried again and won. Which was awesome, and if I hadn't been so darn sleep-derived, I might have celebrated more that 5 minutes before taking a nap. Last year, my daughter was 14 months old and I was working (sound familiar? I'm like Lissa, only one year and a day in the future). And somehow, I pulled it off again, though it was definitely a hard month. I was definitely glad that I started out at warp speed and got my first 40k in the first 15 days. Which is why I plan to write two novels this year (wish me luck). I lost my job in August and my daughter, who is 2 now, is able to entertain herself at least a little. Though I may have to give up a little sleep next month. But I'm ready for it.
I'm a crazy planner, so I've got one novel already outlined and I'm working on figuring out the other novel while I write my 30 Days of Prewriting posts. You can find the link to them in our awesome new headers. I wanted to do them on here, but I wanted them to stick around for eternity-ish, and I wanted to be able to write ahead and schedule them, so that made the blog the best bet. So be sure to check back every day in October after 9am to see that days prewriting stuff. And then when you've got your novel figured out as much as you need it to be, get ready to write and write and write starting at midnight Halloween.
----------30 Days of Prewriting: maidenfine.wordpress.com
2006 - I'm Afraid I Have to Kill You Now (Unfinished)
2007 - Elemental (Winner)
2008 - Hunting Lark (Winner)
2009 - Becoming Flair
16,991 / 50,000
Oct 4, 2009 - 22 06
Yay, first non ML to post! I'm Stacy, this will be my second NaNo. I won last year with about a half-hour to spare. I only had my job to worry about last year, this year I have gone back to school full-time as well as continuing my full-time job. I'm a little unsure if I will finish and have entertained thoughts of cutting my own goal down to 30,000 instead. I do have a week and a half of vacation in October, so maybe in between visiting my new niece I can get ahead on my classes and not have to worry in November. Hmmm....show of hands - how many people think that's actually going to happen. Yeah, me neither.
I have pretty severe ADD, so the satisfaction of finishing something like this is amazing. I tell everyone I know that I'm going to do it so that the threat of not finishing and having to admit it is worse than the torture of sitting in one place and trying to concentrate for more than two minutes at a time. (on a good day)
I work in the children's department at Macy's so feel free to stop in and ask how it's going. I love a good excuse to avoid working, and I'm sure you'd love a good excuse to procrastinate....
Good luck everyone!! I'll see ya in November.
3,887 / 50,000
Oct 5, 2009 - 04 02
Congrats plswriter!*^^*<3
Yo! I'm Laura and uber excited about this year...even though i still don't have a plot...^^; (It's there, i can feel it!)
----------I'm very pleased to meet ya all and am happy to see everyone else after so long.*^^*
"Talk sense to a fool, and he calls you foolish."
45,241 / 50,000
Oct 6, 2009 - 19 17
Okay, I did this tonight. Might as well do it here, LOL!
I'm Sarah. I've been doing NaNo since 2006. Closest I've gotten was last year with 35K worth of words. This year, I'm going to make it!!
Okay, other info:
I'm a mom of two. Ethan turned 4 on St. Patrick's Day, and Madi is 5 days shy of being halfway between Christmas. My husband is a mail carrier in Lawrence (city carrier). I'm a SAHM, for the moment, but hoping to at least become a WAHM ;)
Otherwise, there's not much to tell.
My challenge this year is finding time to do everything. I'm a digital scrapbooker, so I do that usually with my freetime, so it'll at least give me something to focus on if I'm having a brainfart {though I might have to find a way of making that into the story, LOL}. Also, my daughter is in First Grade {woot} and my son isn't in school, so I'm going to figure out times to write when she's at school, but he's home, but keep him entertained without distracting me. How hard can that be? Right?
I'm doomed, aren't I?
----------Twitter: Sarah_CB
Plurk: sarah_tm2ts
NaNoBlog: thewriter.sigsnmore.com
PersonalBlog: http://tm2ts.sarahsmidntfantasy.com
GoogleWave: tm2ts_blog@googlewave.com
12,763 / 50,000
Oct 7, 2009 - 16 43
Hi, I'm Jeff. I've made it 50K two out of five years. I haven't ever managed to be a part of the social stuff, but I'm hoping to change that this year.
I mainly just create a character, if I'm lucky a situation, and just write, hoping that the character(s) will do things long enough that a plot develops. I've never actually finished an entire story arc (50,000 words and no story?), so this year I'm trying to fully develop a plot and characters and setting, etc. Trying a mystery this time, so it kind of depends on a little planning. I know No Plot? No Problem! warns against excessive planning, but it'd be nice to actually get to write "The End" this time.
Oh, and maybe this year will be the first time I don't end up with talking quadripeds wearing clothes.
So far, no anticipated working title.
No kids, but 5 indoor pets, which can take up more time than you might think.
And I love my Alpha Smart.
65,009 / 50,000
Oct 7, 2009 - 18 56
Hello! My name is Diana, aka dustbunnygirl (there is a story behind that, but I’ll spare you). This is, if my memory is anywhere near accurate, my eighth NaNoWrimo. The first four ended in tears, the last three have ended with victory, and I’m hoping for a four-peat this year. My genre of choice for a very long time was mystery and while I’m still a fan, I’ve been dabbling quite a lot in the urban fantasy side of things for a few years now. I am a fanatical planner and abuser of writing/NaNo-themed spreadsheets and a big fan of note cards, random post-its, and vague and ominous tidbits scrawled on dry-erase boards. (I even have a program on my laptop for keeping ePost-Its on my desktop.)
(I’m also fond of parentheticals, if you haven’t noticed)
This year I won’t (despite protests from my beta) be writing within the world of my last three urban fantasyish NaNo novels, mostly because I’m still trying to finish the third part of the trilogy (127,000 words later) and I need a break, even if there are more stories to tell and the plotbunnies are circling. Instead, I’m going to be working on a silly rom-com idea that I had a few years ago but put on hold to finish the Trilogy of Much Doom. I’ve been looking for an excuse for years to commit literary heresy and take a swing at a retelling of Much Ado About Nothing, have also wanted an excuse to somehow fit my baseball addiction into a story, and then this idea came along, so I’m finally going to let it out to run a bit. We’ll see how that goes.
So, with all that said (using as many words as possible as training for the month to come), bring on November!
(On a side note, my heroine apparently decided today that her soundtrack must be full of lots and lots of Abba and my hero decided he’s much more into AC/DC, which is going to make the playlist for this book VERY interesting…)
----------"The beauty of art is that there are no rules."
~Mia Michaels
42,041 / 50,000
Oct 8, 2009 - 14 05
I am Brad and I have decided that I will give NaNoWriMo a go this year after hesitating for the past few years. I bought a NaNoWriMo coffee mug, so now I must give it a try lest I become a hypocrite. You can't drink your drink if you don't walk the walk.
I am excited to see what words end up on my computer screen as I scramble to write them. Will it be nonsensical meta-fiction? At the very least, I have decided there is no time like the present to take this challenge and see how it goes. We'll see what happens and how many words I'll manage.
30,000 / 50,000
Oct 8, 2009 - 16 27
I'm Sarah, and I am excited about writing a novel next month! I love to write, especially poetry and journals, and have always wanted to author a novel. I hope that this year will finally be the year that I will write a full book. Right now I am busy finishing my last year of highschool, after which I hope to devote more time to writing. I am looking forward to being inspired by other writers and excited for a whole month of writing!
----------Sarah
50,363 / 50,000
Oct 10, 2009 - 02 03
This made me laugh out loud. I love this as a motivator. I'm also jealous that you have a mug. Since I lost my job in August, I'm not allowed to buy things this year. Even though the hoodies look so awesome and I've wanted a travel mug for a couple years now.
----------30 Days of Prewriting: maidenfine.wordpress.com
2006 - I'm Afraid I Have to Kill You Now (Unfinished)
2007 - Elemental (Winner)
2008 - Hunting Lark (Winner)
2009 - Becoming Flair
45,241 / 50,000
Oct 10, 2009 - 07 04
Oh man! I want one of the hoodies so badly! It would be PERFECT for today, LOL!
----------Twitter: Sarah_CB
Plurk: sarah_tm2ts
NaNoBlog: thewriter.sigsnmore.com
PersonalBlog: http://tm2ts.sarahsmidntfantasy.com
GoogleWave: tm2ts_blog@googlewave.com
28,457 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2009 - 23 27
Hi, I'm Tonya. This will be my eighth year participating. I'm officially a three-time winner. I got to 50K last year, but not only was I nowhere near the end of the story, I was nowhere near an internet connection, so I didn't get to verify it. I'm currently unemployed, so on the upside, I should have plenty of time to write. On the downside, I'm pretty broke, so snacks and high quality caffeine sources will be in short supply.
I'm probably the least prepared that I've ever been for NaNoWriMo, but I actually kind of think that's a good thing. I think I overplanned some years. I've since gone back and done some neat things with those stories, but by the time November rolled around, I'd been outlining, world building, and character building for 6 weeks and I was just burnt out on the story. My wins have always had a pretty well developed world and characters, but a less well-developed plot. This year, I've got a handful of characters (the best-developed ones are all secondary characters), a bit of backstory, and some vague notions of plot and subplot. Makes me a little nervous, but I'm really excited.
0 / 50,000
Oct 14, 2009 - 05 14
Hi - I'm TG and this is my first year. I'd heard about it from friends and am trying to get back into writing after a 20-year lapse, so we'll see how it goes. It's cool to find a site where writers can help suppourt and stimulate each other. :) It's really great to read all the stories about starting this and the victories and perseverance!
3,497 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2009 - 08 42
Hi,
I am Shari and I this will be my 6th year participating in Nanowrimo. I have won 2 out of the 5 years yeah (the other 3 were grad school). I usually start with a general plot idea and sometimes an idea of the main character. My stories always seem to be supernatural romancey types so I expect this year might go that way as well. This has really been one of the funnest things to accomplish ever. Can't wait for November to begin.
48,508 / 50,000
Oct 17, 2009 - 06 55
Hi. I'm Amy. This will be my third year and I'm so excited for November. I've won the last two years and I really hope to cross the finish line again. I hope everyone can make it to some of the events because it's great to meet the other wrimos in Topeka. I have no idea what I'm going to write this time but I'm sure it will come eventually. Look forward to seeing you all!
39,210 / 50,000
Oct 19, 2009 - 11 32
I'm Fred. I've finished every year since '06. I don't have a ribbon for last year, though. Not sure why. Knowing me, I probably forgot to upload my last chapter or something. Must have been the whiskey, which reminds me. If I get out of hand, just tell lysistrata. She can usually control me.
----------Beauty is truth. Truth beauty
11,684 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 20 42
Hullo everyone, I'm Joseph. I won in '06 and tried in '07. Last year I was working a full time job and going to Washburn Uni so I wasn't able to. This year I'm still working at the same job, albeit part time, and going to KU studying Japanese BUT I missed it so much last year that I'm determined to participate this year. I'm going to completely give up television during the month of November and write like crazy. My work schedule keeps me from the caffeinate and chats, but I hope to see everyone at the other events!
50,363 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 22 32
Yay! Joseph is back! I always love chatting about books with you. Though, admittedly, my reading time is crap these days. But I still like hearing about what books are good. I still remember you told me to read Inkheart way before they made a movie.
----------30 Days of Prewriting: maidenfine.wordpress.com
2006 - I'm Afraid I Have to Kill You Now (Unfinished)
2007 - Elemental (Winner)
2008 - Hunting Lark (Winner)
2009 - Becoming Flair
48,508 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 05 30
I'm so glad you're back Joseph! I missed you last year.
~ Amy
424 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 13 42
Hey, all! I'm Kalen! I'm 16 and a sophomore at THS, just down the street from our HQ this year (library). I've never done NaNoWriMo before, but I'm a big reader and I write some drabble-y stuff, so I figured I'd give it a go. I'm really into realistic fiction right now, and some of the more realistic sci-fi (ie, Harry Potter). I'm a lot older than I am, so don't hesitate to treat me like an adult--I pretty much am! Any encouragement to help me through my first NaNo would be greatly appreciated!
17,847 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 14 51
Old, fat, near-sighted, balding, unemployed, deeply depressed, but otherwise -- by gosh -- I am fine and dandy! My one real talent is an apparent lack of the normal fear of making a fool of myself in public. This has limited benefits, but I have to play to my strength.
I'm Gary. This is my first year of NaNoWriMo. I had never even heard of it before. I happened to see a wall post from one Facebook friend to another urging the other person to get involved. I followed the link, read about this, and now I have thrown my cap over the wall, burned my ships and bridges, and otherwise wagered my self-esteem (such as it is) on fully participating.
Since January, I've had too much time on, and no money in, my hands. In August, just for some kind of creative outlet, and as a way to keep from going crazy, I started writing a noir detective story one day at a time on a blog.
http://tinyurl.com/GarFo
I didn't give myself a 1500-word-per-day goal but otherwise it was surprisingly like NaNoWriMo. Tonight will be my 28th installment on that story, so you can see I haven't written every day either. Still, I welcome the peer pressure (because, hey, we can all use more pressure in our lives, yes?) and the added layer of formailty and self-discipline that NaNoWriMo appears to represent. This also pushes me to wrap up my other story before November 1st.
I hope to attend one of the get-togethers, but it may require hitchhiking and sleeping at a bus stop. We must suffer for our art, or is it "we must fart after supper"? I can never remember. Ad astra per aspera, kids!
51,256 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 19 49
Hello to all of our new nano folks and returning friends! Amy! Joe! Stacy! Diana! Fred! I can't wait to see everyone again (whether in person or online, we all seem to lose touch in those pesky December through-October months).
Whether you are just hearing about and signing up for nanowrimo for the first time this year or you are back to try to add another winner certificate to your wall, we are all in the same boat come November 1 when we start writing from scratch and hopefully we will all be adding many beautiful frantic words to our novels throughout the month.
Hope to see you all at kickoff next Monday night!
----------Perhaps my entire novel can be written during hours and minutes that my toddler is sleeping. Perhaps not.
37,792 / 50,000
Oct 23, 2009 - 17 17
Hey, everyone!
My name is Kate (aka: kaszoom). I'm sixteen years old, and I love writing. My friends say I'm incredibly driven; I say I'm merely obsessed. It's my first year doing NaNoWriMo. I'm ridiculously excited, and I've roped a few of my best friends into attempting it with me (that way I'll have someone to kick me in the butt if I get lazy). I recently discovered the plot for my book, but I'm a tad miffed that I can't start writing now. (I've started writing plot notes during US History class.) I'm most worried that I won't be able to balance high school and writing 1,666 words a day, but I'll give it my best shot. I trust our lovely MLs will keep me in line (I'll be coming to as many in-person events as I can).
Did I mention I'm excited? xD
A few random tidbits of information:
I'm a complete geek, and I'm proud of it.
Currently, I'm listening to Schubert's Unfinished Symphony (if the symphony were a person, I'd marry it).
I recently finished A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. I cried.
A random selection of artists on my iPod: Panic(!) At The Disco, Chopin, Mountain Heart, Evanescence, David Garrett, The Beatles, Brad Paisley, Imogen Heap, The Veronicas, John McCutcheon, Eric Whitacre, Regina Spektor, Hans Zimmer, Rihanna... (As you can see, I listen to pretty much everything.)
I wish my life were a musical. (I randomly burst into song--most of the time, it's a showtune.)
I can't dance. I can't DJ. I can't play piano. However, I CAN pretend. :D
I believe in the inherit worth of every person. I'm a promoter of religious tolerance.
I love hugs. I love The Food Channel. I love cellos (even though I play the violin).
Well, that's enough of me boring you with my idiosyncrasies. I look forward to this crazy adventure with all of you!
Love,
Kate
20,298 / 50,000
Oct 23, 2009 - 20 09
Hi all. I'm Christina (Renee). And I write historical romance (don't roll your eyes, writing romance isn't as easy as many think). :) I've only one Nano once and ever since I've been addicted to writing. I even got on a plane and joined several hundred other women and a few men in Washington D.C. to the Romance Writer's of America Conference.
My favorite part of writing is the research.
One of my favorite websites is Write or Die http://lab.drwicked.com/writeordie.html
I'm a blog nut. I own two, one of which I just started, and co-blog with 9 other writers. http://www.romanceroundtable.com/ Oh, and I contribute articles to KWI Word Warriors.
On to the boring stuff. I'm a wife, a mother of four, and a business owner.
Hopefully, I'll be able to make it to some of the functions this year. (guess I like parentheses too)
Renee
----------Renee Lynn Scott
Unlocking History Through Romance
30,875 / 50,000
Oct 26, 2009 - 19 50
Hi! I'm Elizabeth. I just graduated from college with a writing degree. My internal editor and internal creative genius are always playing capture the flag with my sanity, so I'm hoping to remove the editor's influence for a while and give the creative genius a chance to stretch without getting sat on. I love that editor, but her twin has been crying a lot, so I guess it's just better to separate them for a little while. Hence my joining NaNoWrimo. I'm brand new but determined.
0 / 50,000
Oct 28, 2009 - 05 36
I am Dave, and this is my first year with NaNoWriMo. I took a class on writing fiction in college ten years ago, but haven't written much since then. I have a Masters in psychology and work at Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex. I have a wife and two kids: a 3-year-old boy and a 18-month-old girl.
I am excited about my novel idea and can't wait to see it written so that others can enjoy the story, too. I plan to attend the NaNoWriMo kick off at the library of Saturday.
----------0 / 50,000
Oct 29, 2009 - 11 02
Hello all, I'm Ashley. I graduated from Topeka High a few years ago and have done time at KU and Washburn. I'm currently a student-ish at Washburn, major unknown. This is my first NaNoWriMo, and the last fiction I wrote were 1-2 page short stories several years ago. Writing 50,000 words in 30 days after my long years of inexperience, then, seems akin to the overweight retired sprinter entering the Boston Marathon on a whim, but what would life be without ambition?
I have quite a few concerns, obviously, but the most pressing are that I have only one developed character, and the others seem only to be vague shadow people that just exist to react to the developed character. The other is that I seem to have no plot, just my one good character going off and doing stuff, while the shadow people recoil in horror.
Incidentally, I like the little blurb that goes with the Topeka region...."We need words to survive in Topeka." Oh come on, it's not that bad. Pretty bad, but not that bad!
Best of luck to everyone, myself included!
11,684 / 50,000
Oct 29, 2009 - 11 08
Hey Maidenfine! The movie wasn't nearly as good as the book, don't you think?
Alf, good to see you! I missed everyone so much last year. I think I'm going to actually try to use the forums this year since I can't come to the C&Cs. Looking forward to this Saturday so muuuch.
38,116 / 50,000
Oct 29, 2009 - 12 42
Lissa, I’m here! Turns out moving by November wasn’t in the stars for us. Lucky for you, right?
My name is Sara, and this is my second year of NaNoWriMo. I participated last year, but spilled soda on my laptop (yes, folks, I fell asleep writing! Be warned!) as I was riding home from a Thanksgiving trip to Wichita with about 4,000 words to go. It took me almost six months to replace the computer, and until then, I was typing on an old portable Royal typewriter, which made working on the novel at any speed other than SLOW nearly impossible. Needless to say, I’m not going to be drinking liquids near my laptop AT ALL this year.
Note to self: Though it SOUNDS fun to write an entire novel on a typewriter, it’s NOT. Hemmingway and Fitzgerald must have been greater geniuses than I, because I can’t imagine how they did it! Everything takes SO MUCH longer!
This year, I’m going to be “cheating” a little bit with NaNoWriMo. I’m almost 400 pages into the novel I started working on last year, and I really can’t afford to take time away from it for a month to start a new project. So, the only way to actually participate this year is to take a word count starting November 1 and go from there.
In some ways, I’d like to start a new story, but I have a problem with finishing things I start sometimes, and I’ve resolved to see this sucker through to the end. I think it’s going to be quite a great piece of work when the dust settles.
I’d thought of working on short stories this month as well and keeping track of EVERYTHING as I go along. In order to generate a little extra revenue, I’ve been working on writing and tweaking short stories to submit to publications, and this month would be a good time to go on a production binge. I sure as heck could use the money.
So, for me, this month isn’t going to be so much about the concept of beginning a new narrative and working out all the kinks as it is about continuing an already living narrative…and working out all the kinks. My story is a memoir, and I’m sort of living it through with the character, which means I’ve done almost the entire book without an outline. When I’m within an era, sometimes I have a sketchy idea of what’s going to happen, but for the most part, the story’s written on the fly. It’s a moderately terrifying way to develop a plot!
Add on top of my novel-writing the fact that my husband will most likely be starting his lawyering within the next month and that there may be a move in our near future…this is going to be quite the experience.
So it seems that I’ll be plugging away with the rest of you. I’m glad we’ll all have a support group. This is going to be a heck of a month!
0 / 50,000
Oct 30, 2009 - 13 19
Hi everyone, my name is Matt, this is my first time attempting Nanowrimo, I hope it goes well! I've always thought about trying in the past, but never really had the nerve. My biggest challenge will be the day to day writing, working it in with my job. I'm determined to win though. I'm excited to get started!
----------- sinovic
41,419 / 50,000
Oct 30, 2009 - 18 03
Hi all! I'm Reaona. This is my fourth year. Last year I had a struggle, but managed to hit 50,070 with an unfinished novel. I'll go back and finish it sometime, but not at the moment. Part of my challenge last year was that I had a brand new puppy requiring constant attention. She's a year old now and better capable of entertaining herself, so I'm hoping for better results.
This year I'm going to try doing a mystery. I've put a beginning summary on my page, but I'm sure the details will change as I go. They always do, especially when your characters take over and decide where they want the novel to lead. That's why last years novel is still incomplete. My characters took over and I revolted. Sometime when I figure out how to come to a truce, I'll go back in and rewrite. After all, I don't think my hero appreciated having his wife killed off by his first fiance halfway through the story.
I've been busy this year editing and publishing. I took advantage of my free proof offer for winning the 2007 Nanowrimo and published my 2007 Nano novel "Baseball Card Hero" through CreateSpace. It's now listed on Amazon.com along with my novel "September 11" and a short story collection "Home for Christmas". I entered "Baseball Card Hero" for the 2009 J Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award, which is given out for the best novel by a member of Kansas Authors Club, and received honorable mention. To check out KAC, go to KansasAuthors.org. Anyone who enjoys writing and reading can join. In the Topeka area, we meet on the third Saturday of each month at McFarland's Restaurant at Huntoon and Gage at 11:30.